The Madness of the Shadow Lord
by old copperhead
Summary: Deltora is in dire straits, and needs Lief now more than ever.
1. Chapter 1

Lief set the roses down at Jasmine's grave. On this, what would have been her twenty-eighth birthday.

Not even the Palace Guard accompanied this ravishing fellow here, in the Field of Stone. So many moments braided into each other, every last one leading, ineluctably, to _this_ right now. The man fell to his knees, as if he were compelled by some evil spell.

Look, you need to be aware of this: Lief's beauty has not faded since the reclamation of Deltora, years ago. Unlike the Doom, or Barda's wiofe, he has not aged like milk. King Lief, beloved of the commons: silver hair down to his shoulders; eyes bluer than the waters of Rio Celeste; smooth skin, pale and lovely; lithe musculature, a body neither brawny nor thin; hauntingly beautiful clean-shaven face, stunning flower of Deltoran manhood. And Barda, mentioned earlier, was still in his farce of a marriage to Lindal. They despised each other by now, but did not dare to divorce.

Barda loved Lief, had loved him for years. The big man, being Captain of the Palace Guard, had interacted with Jasmine frequently, and was increasingly curt and frosty with her as time went by. There was a tightness to him when he spoke to her, and a palpable anger, as if he knew something about the queen that drove him insane with rage.

I won't take you into the quagmire of Deltoran politics here over a decade after Lief's coronation, nor how rumors abound of the Shadow Lord gathering his strength once more, antics at the border, as well as the sinister syphilitic sickness sweeping in from the north. Needless to say, Lief's position is precarious, and as yet a helper has not come for him.

Most nights Barda forced Lindal to sleep downstairs with the children. He subsequently walked over to his desk, heart caught in his throat, and drew out his portrait of Lief: the one Barda had drawn himself, and rather skillfully at thatt. Mr Barda held up the portrait for Reverence and Adoration, and jacked himself off. As a matter of fact, Barda could not perform sexually for Lindal, not unless he bent all his thought toward Lief and his gorgeous smile and lithe physique and radiant blue eyes while he fucked the repulsive Lindal pussy.

He longed to...

In this moment, the grieving Lief sighed slightly, found himself looking upward, as a darkness snaked through the cloudless sky. The king cursed, hand reaching for his sword, as his hair and cape were whipped by the sudden gust of wind.

Behold! a demon descends. The Shadow Lord himself came down as hatred and pestilence, withering the grass and the flowers aaid at Jasmine's grave.

The Shadow Lord took form, appearing robed and hooded and with eyes red as embers, features and form merely a configuration of darkness.

Lief stood unafraid, and regal, and he gave forth with threats and condemnations, and the Shadow Lord heard them, but he laughed only and said, 'It's been so long since I've hosted a king. The Realm awaits you, Your Majesty-the Land of my Delight!' But Lief scoffed, and drew his sword, and the two battled in this hour, till the Shadow Lord took the king's sword and broke it, and he bound and gagged Lief very tightly, almost unbelievably so. The Shadow Lord gave a howling belly-laugh, mocked and scorned the very King of Deltora to his face, who could not escape his bonds or cry out for help.

Then the Shadow Lord leapt into the sky, Lief in his clutches, and all at once they were away, to the Land of Shadow.

A row of dead roses. A blasted field. A cursed kingdom.

A fierce contest of arms to come.

To be contuned.


	2. Chapter 2

The day after Lief's disappearance, Doom turned up missing as well, although he proved decidedly easier to find. Doom, whose mother named him Jarred, had met an Ol prostitute in the Red Dog Tavern, taken her upstairs. During the disrobing, Doom discovered that the young lady possessed a cock and balls, and he waxed wroth. The two fought for a short time, till the Doom snapped the whore's neck.

Well, the aging man, lion in winter, could bear life in Deltora no longer. His wife and daughter dead, himself rather poor, distrusted and feared by the populace, and now disgraced with a male prostitute, the fella untied his rope-belt and hanged himself from the ceiling.

But even so! before he'd breathed his last, or suffered a broken neck, three patrons-a pair of gay twins from Broome, as well as their lover Gers-came upon Doom and the slain Ol, and exclaiming they cut him down and called for the Guard.

Awhiel later, Doom, fresh scarring on his bull-neck, spoke to the Lieutenant of the Palace Guard, Ronald, and then to Barda himself, who was moved to pity by Doom's state. Pity, yes, and contempt as well, for Jarred had brought great shame upon himself. A few hours later, still in custody in the Palace and awaiting further questioning, Doom once more attempted suicide, by using shreds of his own tunic to hang himself from the doorknob. And this time it was a success.

He will most likely be buried next to his daughter, Jasmine.

Now we revisit the present, and that is to say, the aftermath of His Majesty King Lief's abduction. Dear me, you could not imagine how distraught the people were to learn of this!

None more than Barda, who privately sobbed and tore out clumps of his hair and punched holes in the walls.

'He's been kidnapped,' Barda was heard to say to his wife, Lindal. 'You can be sure of it.'

She did not disagree, but in the bedroom that night, she-and Heaven knows why-chose this moment to vent her hatred and frustrations toward Lief, in spite of knowing he and Barda were good friends, or more likely because of it. She cursed Lief for a eunuch and an empty-headed embarrassment to the Kingdom; an effete, gloomy little ponce; a retard with pretty hair, etc. No sooner were the last words spoken than Barda strike quicker than any Ak-Baba, dragging her out of bed and hoisting her into the air by the throat with one hand. She kicked, she clawed at his massive hand, she made absurd noises, but Barda dropped her as a gagging heap on the floor, and savagely booted her twice in the ribs, shattering them as clay pots. He reached down while she cried and broke each finger on her left hand, to further cement the lesson.

Barda moved quickly elsewhere, reining in the more willful factions that ever probed at Lief's patience: to the more recalcitrant, he captured their family members and held them as insurance, till they thought better of any nonsense. When the Chamberlain, Myrai, suggested declaring King Lief dead and swiftly crowning another royal in order to promptly rally the people against the threats they faced, the big man ordered that her tongue be ripped out and her cast into the dungeon. Then he deliberated, while the plague advanced through Deltora, the Shdow Lord sent incursions into the northern btorder, and confusion and horror spread like wildfire through the city of Del, and he concluded. That a squad be assembled to search for the king, who was probably taken to the Shadowlands. Barda dubbed it the Last Hope Lief Rescue Task Force. The LHLRTF.

Barda himself, the leader, with brawny Gers, deceitful niggardly Neridah, quiet Claw, reformed Dain, and the bounty hunter Gorl, hired by Captain Barda for a sizeable portion of the Treasury.

As you know, they set out immediately for the Shadowlands, to reclaim sweet Lief from the ancient degenerate Shadow Lord.

To be continued.


End file.
